U.S. HELSINKI COMMISSION TO HOLD HEARING ON HUNGARY

WASHINGTON—Today the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) announced the following hearing:

The Trajectory of Democracy – Why Hungary Matters

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

3:00 p.m.

Capitol Visitor Center, Room SVC 210

(Senate side)

Over the past two years, Hungary has instituted sweeping and controversial changes, prompting the European Commission and Council of Europe jointly to express concern regarding the rule of law in Hungary. Concerns about the erosion of democratic safeguards in Hungary have coincided with a rise in extremism.

This hearing will examine Hungary’s constitutional changes with a particular view to the independence of the judiciary, present-day Hungary’s relationship to its Holocaust-era past, and the implications of Hungary’s sweeping legal changes for civil society, including an independent media and religious organizations.

Scheduled to testify:

**Mr. Brent Hartley, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State

**The Honorable Jozsef Szajer, Hungarian Member of the European Parliament, Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union

Dr. Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University

Ms. Sylvana Habdank-Kolaczkowska, Freedom House

Dr. Paul A. Shapiro, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

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The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 57 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.